Healthy Mind, Happy Heart Wellington, New Zealand

Month: October 2015

Good morning, are you home for Labour Day or heading out to work any way? My kids are all home, so I’m staying home too!

This week the Easy Now Mindfulness workout is about teaching yourself how to focus on being in the here and now. As most of the time, we might not be in the here and now! We might be thinking about things that have happened yesterday, or maybe about what’s coming up tomorrow, next week or even next year. This means that we often forget to enjoy life just as it enrolls right in front of you. With this workout you will make being in the here and now a new habit for yourself and every new habit takes some time to practice and might feel a bit strange at first but you will get it!

So here’s an easy practice, because I’m all about making mindfulness easy! Set your timer on your phone or iPod right now on two times a day when you are able to take 2 minutes to practice. A good time is when you have your morning or lunch break or for example when you’re on the way home in the train or whatever other time is easy for you.

In these two minutes this is what you do:
1. Notice three things that you can see around you, and in between you breathe in and out. This might go like this: ” I see the lamp, breathe in, breathe out, I see the dog, breathe in, breathe out, I see the flowers, breathe in, breathe out.”
2. Notice three things you can hear, and in between just breathe in and out.
3. Notice three things you can feel, and again breathe in and out once between each thing you can feel.

You can easily do this everywhere and this is also a fun activity to do with your children!

Remember this week Mindfulness for Parents is coming up in Petone as well as the Doodle and Colouring workshop in Petone where you learn how to zendoodle, colour, make mandalas etc! Here’s a cute pumpkin I doodled this weekend, and you can learn this too!
Have a good week and would love to hear back from you!
Monique

The first week of the new term has gone by quickly! I have been driving around hanging more flyers for the 8-week training that starts this week in Tawa and Northland and I hosted another Mindfulness Doodle & Colouring workshop, in Wadestown this time.

This week mindfulnes workout is about being kind and complimenting your self. This is a great practice to learn to grow your self compassion. This can improve your general feeling of self worth and confidence.

Everday I want you take a moment to really consider what you did well today, or thought well today, or felt well today and I want you to compliment your self with that achievement. Now this might feel a bit strange and “not like you” but every new habit always feels a bit unnatural and it will get easier for you as you practice.

To make this even more attractive to practice, I dare you to post your compliment to yourself in the comments and at the end of the week I will select one of you randomly and in a very Dutch way, will drop off some flowers for you! If you are in the Wellington Area that is 😉

Holidays are over, it’s back to school on Monday for my children. I’m very happy that during school break I’ve been approached by a journalist for feedback for an article and by a reporter for an item on the local radio. I hope this will help me in spreading the word about my classes. As I’m convinced that my classes can really help people in finding more joy in their live, in lowering stress levels, anxiety and depression and I really like to reach the people that can benefit. Because Mindfulness is not something airy fairy, there is a lot of science behind it. As a psychologist I really don’t want to do anything that isn’t proved to work!

The Mindfulness Workou for this week is inspired by the lovely blog by The Erica Project​.

This week I’ll be spotting Spring, after having been away for two weeks, I find Wellington is sprouting Spring everywhere!

So as you are outside this week, or as you are looking out of your window, go find where Spring is blossoming, at least once a day. Take it all in, the colours you can see the movement in the wind, smell if you can too!
And I would love to see any pictures of what you have found!

Don’t forget all my classes are starting again, the 8 week MIndfulness at Tawa and Northland, (also a great extension if you have done a short training before), the 4 week mindfulness for parents first in Petone and later on in Karori. And the MIndfulness Doodle and Colouring (7+ kids go free!) this Saturday in Wadestown!!

Tell your friends, your family and collegues, post around on Facebook ,so more people can improve their well being and mental health and I can keep doing what I absolutely love doing!
Thanks and have a good week!!